The seat of the Counts of Flanders and the largest town in western Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, GHENT was at the heart of the Flemish cloth trade. By 1350, the city boasted a population of 50,000, of whom no less than 5000 were directly involved in the industry. However, the cloth trade began to decline in the early sixteenth century and although many of the city's merchants switched to exporting surplus grain from France, Ghent slowly declined. Bett... [More]